Telangana may be a reality from 2014

A.P. Chief Minister, his Deputy, PCC chief asked to be in Delhi on Wednesday for consultations

As the UPA Coordination Committee and the Congress Working Committee, both headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, are likely to take a decision in favour of creating a new State of Telangana on Tuesday, plans are being worked out to form the 29th State of the country from January 1, 2014.

It is to be seen whether the new State encompasses two districts of Rayalaseema (Anantapur and Kurnool) or consists of only 10 Telangana districts with Hyderabad being declared as the joint capital for some time till Andhra Pradesh created and developed its own State headquarters. The functioning of police in Hyderabad will be brought under the Central government for some time.

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, APCC president Botsa Satyanarayana and Deputy Chief Minister Rajanarasimha have been asked to be in Delhi on Wednesday and make themselves available for consultation.

Informed sources said if everything goes well, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2013 might be introduced in Parliament as per Article 3 of the Constitution after going through the formalities that include getting the views of the existing Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

A minister from the Telangana region told The Hindu that he was happy that everything was going in the direction of creating a new State and he pointed out that the UPA Coordination Committee might pass a resolution in favour of creating Telangana and “they cannot keep the resolution confidential. They have to announce it.”

Senior Congress leaders from Telangana P. Sudhakara Reddy and V. Hanumantha Rao appealed to Seemandhra leaders to cooperate with the party leadership and the UPA-II government, and accept the decision in the interests of Telugu-speaking population. “Let us continue to live as brothers and sisters,” they said.

However, Seemandhra leaders are still hopeful of thwarting the formation of Telangana as they claimed that UPA partners Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference and E. Ahamed of the Indian Union Muslim League were not in favour of the division of A.P. “Even if the Bill on Telangana is placed in Parliament, it will definitely get defeated with the support of the DMK, the AIADMK, the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the CPI(M),” a senior MP from coastal Andhra said.

The Bills relating to formation of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were approved by Parliament in August 2000 and the new States came into existence in November that year during the NDA regime.